December 10, 2010

TIBETAN DAY

Hi,

Today I participated in a function to commemorate the conferrment of Nobel Prize on His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Yes, 21 years ago on this day, Nobel Prize committee honoured itself when it conferred the prize on His Holiness.

There were about 120-150 Tibetans in that function. Most of them were youth, many of them were students studying in different elite colleges. BUT, the total Tibetan atmosphere in that premises just memsmerised me. The warm welcome, the Chief representative’s speech, cultural events, their attire, the warmth of the tea served- all took me to a different world. I felt, I was in Tibet itself!

Yes, the Tibetan brethren who were hounded for their survival, half a century ago, have neither forgotten nor allowed to go away their cherished culture. They were forced refugees. Yet, they have carried forward their culture, nurtured it, imparted to their younger generations and never lost their identity. AND most important, they have never behaved as a separate nation in the Country they have settled and blended well with it.

I was reminded of the first batch of Parsis, who landed in India few centuries ago in search of their livelihood. Their leader had promised the then King of the Territory, that they will be like sugar in the milk, so blended, so part of it, that they will only enhance the taste of it. Tibetans have lived like the same way in India. And they have only enriched us.